Category: Blog

The 4^th Round of Anderson Silva vs Uriah Hall at UFC Vegas 12 saw a prominent fighter end his career in failure. It was confirmed weeks ago by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that Anderson Silva would be permitted a final octagon appearance & that his opponent would be Uriah Hall. Four of five rounds unfolded before Anderson Silva was TKO’d by Uriah Hall, prompting Silva’s end in the UFC.

MMA Analysts weren’t expecting that Anderson Silva would dominate over Uriah Hall. His dominance throughout the UFC has been minimal since 2013, which is the moment that Chris Weidman defeated Anderson Silva for the Middleweight Championship Belt. Silva maintained the title of Middleweight Champion for 2,000+ days. He has the longest winning streak in UFC history, and is a prominent reason why the sport became internationally popular. His last victory would’ve been against Nick Diaz at UFC 183, which was disputed after both fighters had failed their drug tests.

Age Taking Affect

This marks several consecutive losses for Anderson Silva, more than most UFC fighters are ever granted by Dana White. Uriah Hall was awarded three of the four rounds, with Anderson Silva being gifted the 1^st round. Silva dropped drastically in speed & ferocity when the third bell rang, where Uriah Hall barraged Anderson with numerous body shots. When ending the 4^th round by referee stoppage, Silva was seen holding onto the leg of referee Herb Dean.

After Hall was awarded victory of the competition, Anderson Silva would sit down for interviews. It shows that at 36, Silva doesn’t have the momentum & stamina required to compete in the UFC. It’s subsequently resulted in Silva confirming that UFC Vegas 12 was his last fight under Dana White’s leadership. However, Anderson hinted the possibility of moving to another league like Bellator MMA.

Dana White thinks Anderson Silva foolish for considering a future in professional MMA. The UFC President clarified that what Anderson accomplished throughout his career is legendary, but that it’ll be impossible for him to recapture that status in the future. Most MMA analysts would agree that an ageing Silva cannot sustain more damage in his career.

After Lawrence Stroll provided Sebastian Vettel for an employment contract with Aston Martin Racing in 2021, the Formula One community weren’t remotely shocked. It’d been a widely discussed rumour for months that Lawrence Stroll would partner his son, Lance Stroll, with Sebastian Vettel. It’d be the perfect opportunity for Lance to learn from F1s statistically 2^nd best driver.

Lawrence & Lance have both praised what Sebastian Vettel will bring to Aston Martin Racing, which is called Racing Point for the 2020 season. Now Racing Points Team Boss, Otmar Szafnauer, has praised Vettel & stated he’ll assist the rebranded Aston Martin in 1000 different ways.

Sebastian Vettel being offered a contract from Lawrence Stroll wasn’t surprising. What shocked the Formula One community was his removal from Scuderia Ferrari, and the abrupt way that Mattia Binotto terminated the four-time champion. Vettel had been promised continued employment with Scuderia Ferrari, where he’d be informed before the 2020 F1 Campaign began, that his drivers’ seat wouldn’t be needed at Ferrari. Replacing Sebastian Vettel is Carlos Sainz.

Otmar Szafnauer questioned on Vettel influence

When questioned on how he believes Sebastian Vettel’s influence over Aston Martin will playout, Otmar Szafnauer remarked that the four-time champion will raise their rebranding team to another level & a thousand different things will assist in improving our growth. Otmar declared that Sebastian Vettel will bring a work ethic associated to world champions, and that it’s something everything at Racing Point will want to learn.

Otmar Szafnauer finalized his statements by clarifying everyone at Racing point have to become better & that Vettel will assist Lance Stroll in a mentorship position. Otmar remarked that Sebastian is fast & young, and that Lance can learn a great deal from Vettel. Sentiments moved towards how Vettel’s presence will influence Racing Point (Aston Martin Racing in 2021), which is possible through his four world champions & 53 Grand Prix victories.

It should be clarified that in selecting Sebastian Vettel, Racing Point have parted ways with Mexico’s Sergio Perez. This is the man who turned over his team and ensured it’s survival after the former owner of Racing Point was found in-connection to the Panama Papers. Lawrence Stroll disembarking from Sergio Perez has been widely criticized as disrespectful.

Max Verstappen has clarified his discontent with the scheduling of Formula One’s 2020 Season. It’s not surprising that the Red Bull Aston Martin Racing driver expressed his displeasure, with Verstappen often being vocal against incorrect decisions made by the FIA. Reporters questioned Max on his thought process behind 2020’s F1 scheduling, where the Dutch native would indicate that nine Grand Prix’s in eleven weekends in the absolute limit of Formula One’s grid. Verstappen noted his hope that 2021 will return to their conventional 20 Grand Prix schedule over ten months.

The COVID-19 Pandemic forced Formula One to postpone all Grand Prix’s for 2020, not knowing if they’d be permitted to reschedule under international law. The F1 grid learned in June that seasonal races would resume in July, which was an announcement highly praised by teams & supporters. At that time nobody knew that additional races would be confirmed, increasing the schedule of Grand Prix’s in eleven weeks. Crews have reached their limits on what’s possible with updating their vehicles, managing engineering workforces, and travelling from nation-to-nation. After nearly hitting the halfway point of this unexpected adventure, Max Verstappen appears to be losing his patience.

Three Grand Prix’s were maintained back-to-back in July, with two located at the Austrian Red Bull Ring & one located at Hungary’s Hungaroring. It’s the first time in years that Formula One has given their teams such a close schedule of races, with breaks commonly permitted after two back-to-back GPs. This imposes notable challenges onto F1 team managers, drivers, engineers, pit crews, and all other employed personnel on the Formula One grid. These individuals understand the contractual & commercial obligations that F1 must maintain, which is why there wasn’t any pushback against the odd schedule.

Team Required Breaks

Max Verstappen emphasized to the FIA publicly that Grand Prix’s must be raced in 2020, but that moving forward into next season, things must change. Verstappen cannot imagine another season where teams could account for the weekly demands without being permitted breaks. Max did mention that regardless they’ll accept what’s announced by the FIA, with contractual obligations requiring the team’s participation. It should be said that the FIA hasn’t announced any Grand Prix’s yet for the 2021 F1 Season.

The UFC is well into the resuming of its events after COVID-19 saw it bring a halt to fight nights. The latest promotion being touted by the UFC will see Aleksandar Rakic and Anthony Smith being featured on the 29th of August for its Fight Night main event.

Originally, the card was scheduled to see Yair Rodriguez versus Zabit Magomedsharipov. However, Rodriguez dropped out of the fight after suffering an unspecified injury. Due to the limited notice, the UFC was unable to find a replacement and therefore cancelled the fight.

As Aleksandar Rakic and Anthony Smith were already scheduled to fight during the event, they were upgraded to the main event but will retain the same scheduled three-round bout. Anthony Smith’s last fight against Glover Teixeira resulted in a loss leaving him with only one win in his previous three bouts. Smith’s latest victory came against Alexander Gustafsson, and his other loss was to the current champion, Jon Jones.

Aleksandar Rakic is considered of the top prospects in the heavyweight division but fell short of earning a victory in his fight against Volkan Oezdemi during December’s UFC Busan. At 28, he has racked up a dozen back to back wins before the loss, and that included a first round knockout in December 2018 against Jimi Manuwa.

UFC 252 Update

The UFC Fight Night will take place in Las Vegas at the Apex and will feature welterweights Robbie Lawler taking on Neil Magny and featherweights Ricardo Lamas vs Ryan Hall. Sean O’Malley failed to retain his undefeated record while fighting Marlon Vera at UFC 252 after being knocked out in the first round.

Early in the fight, O’Malley seemed to injure his foot and battled to stay standing before being knocked out and taken out on a stretcher. O’Malley fell to the may early into the first round, and Vera unloaded a vicious series of elbow shots. While O-Malley wasn’t out for the count, he was visibly injured, and referee Herb Dean called an end to the bout.

O’Malley came out strong in the opening seconds of the fight and was able to keep Vera at bay. However, once Vera picked up on O’Malley’s injury, he took over and scored the win. Vera now has a 6-1 record, while O’Malley fell to 4-1.

Those that stand against the dominance & formidable skillsets of Lewis Hamilton were pleasantly surprised on August 9th when Max Verstappen stole the 1st place podium from the British Six-Time F1 Champion. This is a substantial loss for Lewis Hamilton, with Silverstone’s recent race being the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix for Formula One. This historic moment in motorsports is now owned by Max Verstappen, someone that wasn’t expected to become victorious.

Max Verstappen now stands as the single F1 Driver to have won a Grand Prix in 2020. It comes after a formidable strategy was implemented by Red Bull – Aston Martin Racing, which included starting the Grand Prix on the Hard Tyre Compound. Verstappen would immediately gain a single placement after the 1st corner, taking P3 from Nico Hulkenberg.

Max would then manage his Tyres & Pace better than Lewis Hamilton or Valtteri Bottas throughout the 52 Laps. After the 10th Lap, Max would begin pressuring Bottas once learning Mercedes AMG-Petronas was experiencing blisters. He’d overtake Valtteri at the Luffield Corner, with his domination over Lewis Hamilton coming once Mercedes pitted their star driver. It marks the 1st victory for Red Bull Racing at Silverstone since 2012.

Lewis Hamilton found himself struggling throughout the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, maintaining a resurgence into the later laps. This unexpected resurgence prompted Lewis to acquire 2nd Place on the Podium, which was obtained after overtaking Valtteri Bottas at Brooklands. Lewis Hamilton now maintains the same number of Podium Finishes as Michael Schumacher.

The Placements for Fan Favourite Drivers

Fan favourite drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, and Lando Norris found themselves maintaining notable positions on the grid by the 52nd Lap. Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc should’ve received “Driver of the Day” after obtaining P4 on a One-Stop Pit Strategy. Charles got this position with his 2020 SF1000, which is considerably slower than competing cars from Red Bull & Mercedes. This was proven with Sebastian Vettel’s P12 Placement.

Alex Albon from Red Bull Racing garnered P5, making his final overtake on Lance Stroll on the Last Lap. Lando Norris for McLaren Racing maintained 97, and Pierre Gasly with AlphaTauri maintained P11.

Alex Albon obtained support from an unlikely commodore, with same being George Russel from Williams F1 Racing. Both residing from Britain & quickly growing into their positions within Formula One, George Russel couldn’t help but notice the pace difference Alex Albon has experienced in 2020. It’s considerably slower than 2019, showing that Honda is struggling to supply Red Bull Aston Martin Racing with a secure power engine unit.

George Russel would emphasize that Alex Albon is being made to look foolish, which comes after the Red Bull 2nd Driver obtained 13th in the Hungarian Grand Prix Qualifying Session. It’s the worst that Alex Albon has placed since driving for Toro Rosso in the first half on 2019s F1 Season.

Albon remarked over team radio that there was consider understeer throughout the practice sessions, which continued into qualifying. Red Bull didn’t provide Albon with fixes for qualifying following the limited period between Practice Session Three and Qualifying. It should be clarified that Max Verstappen also struggled with pace, sitting 1.4 Seconds behind Lewis Hamilton.

The Austrian & Styrian Grand Prix’s proved troublesome for Alex Albon, maintain low positions similarly to Scuderia Ferrari. Christian Horner has demanded that Albon begin performing at better standards, which George Russel doesn’t feel is justified. The two have raced against each other for fifteen years & have maintained a great working relationship.

Albon fought Charles Leclerc, George Russel, Max Verstappen, and Lando Norris throughout his career before Formula One. The Williams Driver clarified that all four of them would agree that Alex is one of the best. Not providing him with an opportunity to showcase those talents made George Russel question what’s going on in the Red Bull Racing garage.

George Russel finished his interview with F1 Online after qualifying by remarking his sympathies for Alex Albon. Russel clarified that Albon is being made to look foolish when the likelihood is home outperforming Max Verstappen with the same vehicle. These sentiments didn’t fare well with the Dutchman, which could reflect on track during the July 19th Hungaroring Grand Prix. Max Verstappen is known for physically pressuring his rivals on the track, which some suspect could happen for Russel at Hungary.

After tracking suspects for six months who the authorities said deliberately lost no less than five tournament matches while placing bets on those matches, arrests have been made. The result of the Australian police’s investigation could see those responsible facing as many as ten years in jail for esports match-fixing.

As most of the world’s sports are postponed, many who enjoy betting on sports have turned to watching talented gamers battle it out online while playing esports. The number of people tuning in via the popular Amazon platform Twitch has almost doubles from this time last year. Fans of esports generally tune in to Google’s YouTube, Microsoft’s Mixer, and Twitch to watch professional gamers play many of the best selling Electronic Arts games such as FIFA soccer.

As a result of the increase and the amount of money it is generating, it is tempting many players to break the rules and is seeing a substantial increase in corruption with multiple gamers being caught for participating in illegal betting syndicates who fix matches. As all action is carried out in a virtual world and throughout the world, it is far more difficult to bring an end to this type of behaviour than it is during regular sporting events.

Australia forms Esports Integrity Commission

To combat this, Australia formed the Esports Integrity Commission as a tool to assist in the fighting of corruption in this industry. Its director, Stephen Hanna, while commenting on the challenges said: “It won’t be possible to fully eliminate illegal betting and match-fixing. It’s about limiting its position in the market to the greatest extent possible.”

It is expected that esport wagers will increase to over $13 billion this year, up from $5.5 billion two years ago based on a recent report from EK Gaming & Advisers. This makes it one of the largest in terms of sports betting growth that is estimated to be worth $135 billion globally. That has resulted in betting firms such as Hillside Sports ENC, Tipico and Betway all offering esports as a betting option to their members.

While governments have been attempting to bring an end to esport betting, Sweden is the only one of late who introduced legislation that will fine betting companies that offer odds on any esport matches where the average age of participants is less than 18. The goal is to protect the integrity of esports and bring an end to providing any financial incentives to fix matches. It is expected that the U.S and Spain will also be introducing similar legislation this year or early in 2021.

The Edmonton Oilers had the opportunity to win last night’s game in the first fifteen minutes. That is exactly what they should have done, but there was not the option of running after the Vegas Golden Knights for 60 minutes.

Edmonton is at the tail end of two back-to-back road games, and with the club being riddled with injuries, they managed to stay competitive against the super-hot Knights for about as long as anyone could expect before the Knights took over. The end result was a 3-0 loss on a night the Knights had superior goaltending and a better team as well.

In post-game interviews, Leon Draisaitl stated, “We needed a powerplay goal. We had enough chances to score, especially the first two powerplays. Just couldn’t get one over the line.”

Draisaitl himself lost messed on multiple chances of earning his 100th point this season but simply could not get the job done and that was not lost on the star forward, who adding to his comments stated, “Other than the second period I thought we played a solid game. We created chances. But nights like that, they happen. We’ve probably won a lot of games this year where we created a lot less than tonight.”

In the first minutes, he sent multiple shots but failed to put into the net, and in the third period, he hit the post with one shot. Connor McDavid also missed out on several opportunities in the opening minutes of the first that he usually connects with and it was the skill of Marc-Andre Fleury that put the brakes on the Oilers having any hope of being relevant in the game last night.

It was after the first 15 in the first that things went south for Edmonton. This came about after Max Pacioretty fired off a shot that should never made it in past Mikko Koskinen, who played solid in net thereafter had little help from the Oilers who after recent events seemed pretty beaten up.

On the plus side for Edmonton, they did manage to gain three points during this road trip, one that has seen them play nine of their last 12 on the road including stops in Florida, California, Nashville and Chicago. The bad news, however, is they lost four out of the last five.

Topping the ranks of women’s tennis for 2019 is Ashleigh Barty. Now, this tennis star cut another record when she smashed the $10 million prize money ceiling for the season. Barty earned herself a spot only shared by one other for having the most lucrative WTA Finals ever, as her on-court earnings slipped to an impressive $10.93 million.

The recent windfall in the Australian’s income just more than doubled her career earnings in only one season. This could increase even more if Barty manages to defeat Petra Kvitova and thus qualify for the semi-finals. If Barty makes it to the final four in the tournament, she will be sure of at least $1.45 million, and if she moves on to the finals and takes victory, the total value of her prize money stands at $5.98 million. Considering the odd scenario that she might lose during the semi-finals, the 23-year-old player will still depart back on her journey home from China with $890 000 in hand.

Holding Your Future in Your Hands

The results of the finals are very much in Barty’s own hands. That is also the way that she prefers it to be. Currently, the contest within the pool is still keen to compete for the finals, but the action plan for Barty to proceed to the desired position is rather evident. The Australian star needs to take Kvitova out of the run and then she’ll be in the top view of the Red Group.

This will secure that she advances to the semi-finals. Once again even if she loses, she might still be able to slip into the finals if she manages to snatch a set from Kvitova and Kiki Bertens manages to gain victory over Belinda Bencic in a total of three sets. This would be a much more complex scenario, yet still possible. When counting back the number of games won and lost by each of the competing players, this might gain her access to where she wants to be.

Barty vs Kvitova

Barty stated that every single time the two of them met on the court, it had been a challenging experience. She also noted that each time is different. Now playing in China, the condition would once again be changed. What she needs to do is to be able to find Kvitova’s strengths and eliminate their effect while working on her weakness and still stay true to her pattern of play. Barty also expressed that the two tennis forces do have tremendous respect for each other. She stated that Kvitova does have a way to bring out the best performance she has to deliver on the court.

Does Barty manages to proceed, she is bound to meet up with either Elina Svitolina, the titleholder, or the champion of Wimbledon Simona Halep or Karolína Plíšková, to secure the desired spot in the finals.